Our Nation Studies Weekly

American Foundations

North Carolina Fifth Grade Social Studies

Standards Coverage

Week 1: Government Review

The students will be reviewing the government of the United States. It is the people who give authority to be governed. Being an actively engaged citizen is a responsibility in a democratic republic.

Week 2: Geography Review

The student will be given the tools and framework to study the Earth and its people. The skills will be used in the study of United States history.

Week 3: Life in the Americas

The focus this week is on meeting wants and needs with the resources available. Each indigenous tribe in North America adapted to the materials and resources around them. Every individual needs shelter, food, water, and clothing. A vibrant society uses the resources around it to meet its needs and creates trade with others to meet other needs and wants. Each article will examine how each native tribe met their basic needs.

Week 4: American Indian Government and Trade

The students will learn more about the vibrant societies of indigenous people pre-European exploration. Outward appearances may differ, but the base of a society is its belief systems, trade, security, and communication. The many societies that existed prior to European contact were elaborate and sophisticated. Cities and extensive trade networks were established and are now being documented through archaeology and modern technology.

Week 5: The Age of Encounters

The students will discover what the world was like at the beginning of the Age of Exploration. They will read about what motivated governments to finance expeditions. They will be introduced to reasons people wanted to explore, including the search for a better route to Asian markets. There is also information about the maps and technology that made extended sea voyages possible.

Week 6: Consequences of Contact

This week looks at the consequences of new things. There are always consequences to people’s actions. Consequences can be economic, geographic, physical, or educational. Sometimes consequences can be positive for everyone. Other times, the consequences are negative. These can be incidental and happen without a thought. This week will help students consider the actions and impacts of exploration in the 14th century. The learning impacts the 21st century as well.

Week 7: The Colonies and Their Founding

This week’s issue is focused on the general causes for early colonization in North America, including the pull factors that companies used to recruit people to move to America. The geography, economics, and governments of the new colonies will be examined to give a foundation for understanding future governments in America.

Week 8: Jamestown

This week’s issue includes information about the settlement of Jamestown in 1607. The settlement survived and grew through 1627. The issue includes information about the Virginia Company, which included the first settlers, and why they came. Students will also learn about the early economic and government systems of European settlers, the culture and interactions with American Indians who already lived on the land, the introduction of tobacco as a cash crop, and the introduction of Africans as enslaved labor.

Week 9: Plymouth

This issue examines the reasons for the immigration of the Separatists from England and their settlement and establishment of Plymouth Colony in the Americas. Articles also examine who the Separatists were, the pattern of early governance established by the Mayflower Compact, and relations with the American Indians. Important American Indians and Separatist leaders who helped the colony survive are also profiled.

There are also facts about the real story of the first Thanksgiving.

The content topics parallel the topics in Jamestown to make it easier for students to compare and contrast.

Week 10: Colonial Life

As colonies became established with families, crops, trade, markets, and governments, life changed for everyone. The colonies became thriving, bustling centers of commerce. Families invested in land and business to make a change for themselves in America. Economic gain was the goal of every European immigrant who came to America. This desire created events that would change peoples’ lives. This week introduces the practice of enslaving people in America and the resulting consequences.

Week 11: Clash of the Empires

This week sets up the economic and geographic factors that created conflict in North America between the British, the French, and the Iroquois Confederacy. The people instrumental in creating the conflict are introduced and explored.

Week 12: Consequences of the French and Indian War

The students will be learning about the consequences of the French and Indian War on all empires involved in the conflict.

Week 13: The Acts of Parliament

Paying the debt incurred from the French and Indian War in America was foremost in the minds of King George III and members of Parliament. The actions they took and the reactions to those actions closed doors to communication and the hope for a peaceful resolution.

Week 14: The Actions of the Colonies

This week’s study will center on the time period after the Boston Massacre in 1770 and the events that led to armed conflict. This is the story of colonial and British men standing and dying for principles of freedom and liberty.

Week 15: The Shot Heard Round the World

Students will study the actions of the colonies and British Parliament after a peaceful resolution could not be found. Armed conflict should always be the last resort. This week will examine the people and the government that were in place for a group of colonies to become their own country.

Week 16: Independence and Revolution: The People

This week’s focus is on the people who created and lived during the Revolution in the newly independent United States of America. Students will examine the form and contents of the Declaration of Independence. Then, they will learn about the ordinary citizens, individuals, groups, and families whose stories are woven together in time and space.

Week 17: Independence and Revolution: The Military

This week will be focused on the military actions, conditions, and leaders of the American Revolution. The War for Independence lasted six years. Lack of funding troubled Congress and the army. This meant hardships for the soldiers and their families. The key to winning the war was to not lose completely. At no time could General Washington afford to have the army captured or destroyed. No army meant no United States.

Week 18: The Founders and Process

Students will learn about the people who guided the building of a government after successfully gaining independence.

Week 19: Constitution

The students will be examining the Constitution of the United States of America. The Constitution limits the government and protects the individual rights of the people. The Constitution frames the civil rights of the citizens and defines the line between federal and state responsibilities.

Week 20: The Bill of Rights

The students will examine the Bill of Rights to see the protection it provides for individual rights from government authority.

Week 21: The New Nation

The students will study the implementation of the new government in the country. The United States was growing quickly. Governing is different from revolution.

Week 22: America On the Move

Students will be investigating the energy and ideas of a new country. With revolution behind them and a government in place, the people have the opportunity to create their own future.

Week 23: Expansion and Growth

The students will explore how the nation expanded across the continent and came under the control of the United States government. Movement and settlement are a result of geographic, government, religious, cultural, and economic factors. The students will also gain evidence to support how geography and economics drive the actions for governments and people.

Week 24: The Cherokee Nation

Students will examine the story of the Cherokee Nation, their interactions with the United States government in the Indian Removal Act, and its impact on their people.

Week 25: Slavery in America

This week will tell the stories and background of African American people who were enslaved in the southern states during the years 1800-1860. The focus will be on their daily life, their resistance to their enslavement, and the struggle to gain freedom.

Week 26: Abolition

The students will be learning about the Individuals and organizations who publicly opposed the enslavement of people.

Week 27: Compromises to Keep Slavery Legal

Students will study the build-up of various national attitudes to legalized slavery. This week centers on the political actions of Congress in the nation’s capitol building.

Week 28: The Road to War

The students will examine the factors that led a country to a war between its own citizens. The actions leading to the Civil War came slowly over time until events escalated to the point of no return.

Week 29: The House Divided by War

The students will be learning about the people in the Civil War. The leaders, soldiers, and civilians were all connected in this very costly war of human lives. The outcome of this war would determine if states could legalize slavery and refuse participation in the federal government.

Week 30: Of Souls and Soldiers

Students will be using primary source documents to gain insight of personal accounts during the Civil War. War is complex and touches people in different ways. Students will be exploring how events in April 1865 challenged every American and how we can learn from them today.

Week 31: Building the Peace

The students will be learning how the country moved away from war and tried to build the peace during Reconstruction. The many political philosophies of how to deal with the rebellious South complicated the rebuilding. The treatment of the newly emancipated enslaved people was met with resistance by the former enslavers. However, many African Americans led the way and helped create a new South.

Week 32: Rebuilding the Union

The students will be learning of the diverse populations affected by the Civil War. The building of the economy and increased transportation to get goods to market were vital for the reconstruction of the nation.